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Heinrich Hubbeling, best known for his great coverage of Asian results and records, sent this message yesterday--

Dear friends,

herewith I attach two files concerning the new KSA-Record of 4.90 m, which was achieved by a young boy,
who was born 4th Jan 1998 according to the attached document (passport) after my request to my correspondent to confirm his DOB. My question to you as experts for Junior Athletics, Pole Vault specialists or as other correspondents:
-are you able to find out, whether this is the World Best Performance for a Boy at the age of 14 years or whether
you may know about a better age-group-performer ?
-for our NR-database this is the youngest male NR-holder ever.

My response to Heinrich (and my request for any help you can offer) was:

I don't find another mark of any 14-year-old above 4.50 in my files. The other young vaulters with heights above 4.90, or close, were all 15 or older. These include:

RUS 5.10 Vasiliy Petrov 1983-02-05 Tula 07-05-1998
HUN 4.90 István Bagyula 1969-03-02 Debrecen 07-05-1984
FIN 4.85 Arto Peltoniemi 1966-02-26 Raahe 09-29-1981
AUS 4.85 Matei Tzvetanov 1989-03-02 Sydney 12-09-2004
FRA 4.82 Sébastien Leydier 1979-02-07 Arles 10-29-1994
POL 4.81 Ryszard Kolasa 1964-04-17 Sopot 09-17-1964
ARG 4.81 German Chiaraviglio 1987-04-16 Santa Fe 10-31-1902

I'll be very interested to learn whether others of your correspondents can add to (or correct) any of these.

Cheers,
Roger

---

How about it? Does anyone know of another (middle-school or junior high?) vaulter who did 16' or better while fourteen years old?

What is the name of the athlete? Frankly I'm skeptical. I don't have a lot of faith in age documents from certain countries, and I have a hard time believing an athlete from Saudi Arabia, a country that seems to have a revolving door of coaches has jumped higher than any other athlete his age.

But DJ should be able to confirm or deny this, I believe he was coaching there not long ago. I remember he had a talented young vaulter with potential, but I think he was at least 15 or 16 and that was last year or the year before.

Sorry 'bout that--pretty clumsy of me to omit the name. It is Hussiem Asim Al Hizam, and his record clearance was in winning the Saudi League Championships for Federation Schield at Riyadh on 9 May 2012. The passport photo Hubbeling attached confirmed the birthdate.

James Miller aged 15 jumped 4.81 in Perth 90/91?- jumped 5.75 in Atlanta 1996. Matthew Filsell aged 15 cleared 4.82 in Adelaide in March 1992 - went on to jump 5.30 to win OZ Under 20 1995 (Paul Burgess second at 5.20 - Paul went on to win World Juniors in 96 with 5. 35 an eventually clear 6.00m) Unfortunately Matt went on to stick his ankle in a rabbit hole when training on a field close to his home in March 96 and did not qualify for the WJ final that year! Jumped 5.45 indoors at age 20. Retired to make a living!!!

I also doubt the age. If correct, it is new world record.

World best for 14 years old are 4.75.
4.75 Benjamin Renaudeau, FRA 24 Jul 85 , Saint-Étienne 21 Jun 00
4.75 Albert Vélez ESP 26 Oct 88 Sherbrooke QC 12 Jul 03

I'm going to assume this is that boy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX5hdO5eUF8 (last year, 4.40m)

All-Athletics lists him as birthdate of 1996 (and competing for Kuwait, though the latter does seem to be in error) and 4.60, not 4.90 in that meet.
http://www.all-athletics.com/node/647695


But I said that I would defer to dj in this matter, and it does seem that the kid is as young as they say.
http://polevaultpower.com/forum/viewtop ... 31&t=21132

Roger or dj, are results from the meet posted anywhere? Skepticism about his age aside, did they send verification of the height jumped.

Even if it was 4.60, that is quite remarkable for a 14-year-old. And this video says he jumped 4.76 in April: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrCT9NAwj6g

And now, just in, this great summary of Age 14 & 15 bests from Swedish PV statistician Kenneth Lindquist:

Age 14

4.91 Hiroki Sasase JPN 17.8.89 Hamamatsu 12.6.04
4.90 Hussain Asim Al-Hizam KSA 4.1.98 Riyadh 9.5.12
4.80 Vasiliy Petrov RUS 5.2.83 Lipetsk 23.1.98
4.75 Benjamin Renaudeau FRA 24.7.85 St. Etienne 21.6.00
4.75 Albert Vélez ESP 26.10.88 Sherbrooke 12.7.03
4.72 Christian Linskey GBR 14.6.80 Sheffield 10.6.95
4.72 Kelly Stephens USA 0
4.70 Thomas Skipper USA 19.9.84 1.8.99
4.63 István Bagyula HUN 2.1.69 83
4.61i Arto Peltoniemi FIN 26.2.66 Raahe 7.2.81
4.50 Tamás Ungvári HUN 19.5.88 Budapest 3.5.03
4.50i Panagiotis Láskaris GRE 10.3.92 Peania 4.2.07

a good chance but details missing:

4.71 Yoshihiro Asano JPN 21.12.85 0


Age 15

5.33 Jacob Davis USA 29.4.78 Orangefield 12.4.94
5.11 Albert Vélez ESP 26.10.88 Almeria 1.8
5.10 Vasiliy Petrov RUS 5.2.83 Tula 5.7.98
5.10 Hiroki Sasase JPN 17.8.89 Chiba 3.8.05
5.00 Raphael Holzdeppe GER 28.9.89 Mannheim 19.6.05
4.98 Scott Roth USA 25.6.88 Sacramento 5.6.04
4.96 Jason Lavender USA 29.7.71 Arlington 4.7.87
4.90i Karsten Wichert GDR 1.6.68 Berlin 29.1.84
4.90 Koji Hosono JPN 3.8.78 Toyama 2.8.94
4.90 István Bagyula HUN 2.1.69 Debrecen 5.7.84
4.90i Vyacheslav Ostapenko RUS 28.4.82 Lipetsk 23.1.98
4.90 Dmitriy Polyakov RUS 4.6.82 Krasnodar 22.5.98
4.90i Olivier Jehannet FRA 17.10.84 Paris 27.2.00
4.90 Olivier Jehannet FRA 17.10.84 Beaupreau 1.7.00
4.90i Spencer McCorkel USA 15.3.89 Fayetteville 5.3.05
4.90 Ivan Horvat CRO 17.8.93 Split 28.6.09
4.87 Thomas Skipper USA 19.9.84 Sandy 14.4.00
4.85 Arto Peltoniemi FIN 26.2.66 Raahe 29.9.81
4.85 Kyle Henderson USA 11.8.68 Houston 30.6.84
4.85i Neil Winter GBR 21.3.74 Cosford 17.2.90
4.85 Hiroaki Tanabe JPN 1.12.79 Tottori 3.8.95
4.85 Masafumi Moribe JPN 29.1.84 Tokyo 14.11.99
4.85 Matei Tzvetanov AUS 2.3.89 Sydney 9.12.04
4.82 Matthew Filsell AUS 9.5.77 Adelaide 20.2.93
4.82 Sébastian Leydier FRA 7.2.79 Arles 29.10.94
4.82 Matti Mononen FIN 25.11.83 Kuusankoski 5.9.99
4.81 Ryszard Kolasa POL 17.4.64 Gdynia 17.9.84
4.81 Germán Chiaraviglio ARG 16.4.87 Santa Fé 31.10.02
4.81 Carlo Paech GER 18.12.92 Hohen Neuendorf 13.9.08
4.80 Rodion Gataullin URS 23.11.65 Volgograd 26.9.81
4.80 Harri Palola FIN 29.10.66 Ylivieska 6.9.82
4.80 Arnaud Verguet FRA 26.5.79 La-Valette 19.6.94
4.80 Jiang Anhua CHN 18.4.79 Jinan 11.3.95
4.80 Takayuki Kato JPN 20.1.81 Shizuoka 13.7.96
4.80 Dezsö Szabó HUN 5.10.89 Marrakesh 15.7.05
4.80 Logan Cunningham USA 30.5.91 Seguin 23.3.07
4.80 Panagiotis Láskaris GRE 10.3.92 Athína 24.6.07
4.80 Brodie Cross AUS 3.4.94 Melbourne 6.2.10
4.80 Lukas Wirth AUT 21.6.95 Schweinfurth 18.6.11
4.75 Sebastien Bluteau FRA 23.6.80 Fontenay le Comte 5.5.96
4.75 Adam Ptácek CZE 8.10.80 Olomouc 8.5.96
4.75 Patrick Jesser AUS 11.6.81 Adelaide 9.3.97
4.75i Ron Schieskow GER 7.7.84 Sindelfingen 19.2.00
4.75 Juho-Matti Pimiä FIN 28.12.84 Lappeenranta 25.8.00
4.75 Sam Ewing USA 26.8.91 Black Springs 6.6.07
4.75i Didac Salas ESP 19.5.93 Sant Cugat 12.12.08


a good chance but details missing:

5.00 Yevgeniy Bondarenko URS 8.10.66 82
4.95i Tim Hamilton USA 55 Montgomery 27.2.71
4.80 Shinji Matsukawa JPN 28.12.71 87
4.80 Wayne Guidry USA 24.11.73 89
4.80 Akos Kovacs HUN 26.8.75 91
4.80 Dmitriy Kuptsov RUS 9.11.82 98 9

This birth date confirmation today from Heinrich Hubbeling--

P V : Hussein Assem Al-Hizam 4.90/NR & NJR & NYR; (DOB for this athlete is finally confirmed as
4th Jan 1998; his new PB of 4.90 m is obviously the best ever in the worldwide at the age of 14 years);

Roger can you find a link to meet results? I find it odd that all-athletics lists 4.60 as the result for this competition.

Seems like IAAF has got the results confirmed.
http://www.iaaf.org/statistics/toplists ... etail.html